The introduction of sectional timing at the top level of British and Irish racing is essential if they are not to be seen as “third world jurisdictions” by international punters, Garry O’Gorman, Ireland’s senior handicapper, told the press conference to unveil the World Thoroughbred Rankings on Tuesday.
Having heard Dominic Gardiner-Hill, the British Horseracing Authority’s deputy head of handicapping, tell the conference that it is a “great shame” that no-one can tell how fast Frankel was travelling at various stages of the 2,000 Guineas, O’Gorman said that sectional timing is long overdue at major tracks.
“Surely somebody can see the big picture here,” O’Gorman said.”Perhaps a company like Betfair, surely the scope for in-running betting can be massively influenced by provision of sectional times.
“In the future, when there is co-mingling of [international] betting pool, it will be even more critical. If people betting into worldwide betting pool are looking for what they are used to, we are going to be seriously embarrassed if they look at a race and see an anachronistic presentation of form data.
“Sectional timing would also be a very useful tool [for the handicappers]. We have a distinctly third-world attitude to things like this. We are pissing in the wind when we try to distil certain things from the time of a race, and sectional timing would be so much more useful.”
